In Re Ince

Case Description

The ACLU-MN filed a brief in support of a man who was civilly committed indefinitely to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. Cedric Ince was committed to MSOP after he was convicted of two sexual assaults (both while intoxicated). The trial court found that Ince was a sexually dangerous person and highly likely to re-offend, despite the fact that he had been under intensive supervision without significant trouble, had remained sober and had been attending an outpatient sex offender program at the time.

In it's brief filed in July 2013 the ACLU-MN argues that this Court adopt new standards to determine whether an individual is "highly likely to re-offend" based upon risk factors which can objectively measure an individual's risk of re-offense. The methods that are currently used to determine whether someone is likely to re-offend are out of date and considered obsolete by most in the forensic risk assessment field.

Cooperating Attorneys on the case: Ryan B. Magnus and Jennifer Thon of Jones and Magnus and Teresa Nelson, Legal Director for the ACLU-MN

2015 updates

Minnesota Supreme Court

The Minnesota Supreme Court examined the record and concluded that it was unclear whether the lower court had applied the correct factors to civilly commit Ince, as clarified by the Supreme Court's opinion. For that reason, it remanded the case to the Sibley County District Court for additional proceedings.